RALEIGH, NC (AP) — The shipwreck-hunting company that found Blackbeard’s flagship that sank off the North Carolina coast nearly 300 years ago has sued the state for more than $8 million, saying officials violated a contract involving photos and videos of the wreck and recovery.

Florida-based Intersal Inc. also says in the lawsuit filed Monday in state court in Raleigh that the amount being sought could increase as the company discovers further violations of the contract involving the ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge.

The lawsuit also seeks a temporary order preventing the state from violating the contract and from recovering more objects from the ship. North Carolina has created a tourist industry based on Blackbeard and the ship since its discovery in 1996.

A spokeswoman for the state says North Carolina denies violating the contract.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/07/27/shipwreck-hunting-company-sues-nc-over-blackbeards-ship/feed/0Scientists find shipwreck apparently centuries old off NChttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/07/17/scientists-find-shipwreck-apparently-centuries-old-off-nc/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/07/17/scientists-find-shipwreck-apparently-centuries-old-off-nc/#commentsFri, 17 Jul 2015 17:59:48 +0000http://www.wwaytv3.com/?p=165507DURHAM, NC (AP) – Duke University says scientists using underwater vehicles and sonar have found a shipwreck off the North Carolina coast that may date back to the American Revolution.

The expedition led by Duke marine scientist Cindy Van Dover found the previously unknown wreck in mile-deep waters Sunday using an underwater robot and a manned submarine.

They’ve found artifacts including an iron chain, glass bottles, an unglazed pottery jug and navigational instruments including a metal compass.

The scientists think the wreck dates back as far as the late 18th century based on the artifacts, but a federal government program will attempt to date and identify the lost ship.

The expedition also includes scientists from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon aboard a vessel from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/07/17/scientists-find-shipwreck-apparently-centuries-old-off-nc/feed/0Another cannon raised from Blackbeard’s shiphttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/10/28/another-cannon-raised-from-blackbeards-ship/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/10/28/another-cannon-raised-from-blackbeards-ship/#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000BEAUFORT, NC (AP) — Another cannon has been raised from the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard’s ship off the North Carolina coast.

The Jacksonville Daily News reports that crews were cleaning up Monday after a three-week fall dive on the wreckage of the Queen Anne’s Revenge near Beaufort.

Project Director Billy Ray Morris says that divers were able to raise one cannon and found another in the midsection of the wreck. Crews have been raising artifacts from the vessel for 17 years.

Blackbeard captured a French slave ship and renamed it Queen Anne’s Revenge in 1717. He was killed in Ocracoke Inlet the following year, five months after the ship sank.

The shipwreck was discovered in 1996.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/10/28/another-cannon-raised-from-blackbeards-ship/feed/0ONLY ON 3: Fishing trip may have turned into shipwreck discoveryhttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2013/08/29/only-3-fishing-trip-may-have-turned-into-shipwreck-discovery/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2013/08/29/only-3-fishing-trip-may-have-turned-into-shipwreck-discovery/#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000Could it be a shipwreck never before caught on camera? A local surfer might have found one yesterday while fishing at the south end of Wrightsville Beach.]]>WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Could it be a shipwreck never before caught on camera? A local surfer might have found one yesterday while fishing at the south end of Wrightsville Beach.

After diving down with a camera, this fishing trip turned into the discovery of a lifetime.

“Kind of looked a lot closer, and could see a real large, kind of almost like a shackle it looked like down there,” Kenny Hand said of the discovery. “And I landed the fish, investigated a little more, and said I had to come on back out.”

As of right now, it’s unclear exactly which ship it is. According to the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch, there are several wrecks in that general area, mainly blockade runners from the Civil War.

We’ll investigate more coming up in Marking History Tuesday.

[Underwater video by Nick Rasmussen]]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2013/08/29/only-3-fishing-trip-may-have-turned-into-shipwreck-discovery/feed/3Sandy helps uncover old shipwreck at Surf Cityhttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/11/05/sandy-helps-uncover-old-shipwreck-surf-city/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/11/05/sandy-helps-uncover-old-shipwreck-surf-city/#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000SURF CITY, NC (WWAY) — Beach erosion from Hurricane Sandy has unearthed a section of the William H. Sumner, a three-masted scooner that ran aground in Surf City in 1919. The ship was sailing from Puerto Rico to New York when it happened.

Portions of the ship are sticking up out of the sand and are visible during low tide.

]]>http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/11/05/sandy-helps-uncover-old-shipwreck-surf-city/feed/1Students spend spring break sorting Civil War shipwreck artifactshttp://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/03/06/students-spend-spring-break-sorting-civil-war-shipwreck-artifacts/
http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/03/06/students-spend-spring-break-sorting-civil-war-shipwreck-artifacts/#commentsWed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000FORT FISHER, NC (WWAY) — While most college students spend their spring break in warm, tropical locales, a few from and UNCW and East Carolina are at Fort Fisher this week digging up artifacts.

Eleven graduate students from ECU and four UNCW interns are spending three days sorting artifacts from the 1862 shipwreck of the blockade runner Modern Greece.

More than 1,100 artifacts were recovered in the 1960’s. Many are just now being conserved.

Though the chore is not for credit and strictly volunteer, the students say the opportunity is worth it.

“No Key West for us,” ECU graduate student Nicole Wittig said. “We are all volunteering. This is the second year of us coming down during our spring break for a couple of days, but I think I could speak for my fellow students and say it’s great to have an opportunity like this.”

The students have already catalogued a couple hundred artifacts today.

NORFOLK, VA (AP) — Submerged World War II shipwrecks in North Carolina and Civil War shipwrecks in Virginia are being analyzed in new ways that could allow the public to view their conditions in much more detail than even diving at some of the sites could provide.

Federal researchers are using sonar to create vivid, three-dimensional images of the shipwrecks. Those images will likely end up online, in museums and as part of other programs to promote American maritime heritage.

On Tuesday, researchers headed to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to begin creating images of ships sunk in 1942 during the Battle of Atlantic.

Researchers used the sonar to map the Civil War shipwrecks USS Cumberland and CSS Florida on Monday in Virginia near Newport News.